Matthew Wright, 45, presents The Wright Stuff on FIVE. Previously divorced, he
recently married Amelia Gatte, 34, who works for Sony.

Has having money made you happier?

Over the past 10 years I’ve earned significantly more than I ever did before, but it has also been a decade of personal changes which, when taken together, have made me a happier and nicer person. The first change was getting divorced in 2000 because my first marriage was not working and the second change was leaving newspapers. I used to write the showbiz column at the Mirror and in many ways papers today seem a lot softer than when I had Piers Morgan breathing down my neck – he knew showbiz inside out. I ended up taking a different direction into television and started earning better and I’m much more suited to it. I still get on well with Piers when I see him, but he spends most of his time these days in Hollywood.

Would you say you’re good with money or irresponsible with it?

I would deny I am irresponsible with it, but I’m sure I could have a better financial brain and use my money in more rewarding ways. The thing is, I don’t want anxiety – when I bought my house in Primrose Hill seven years ago it was a huge stretch and I was quite worried. My approach was to overpay my mortgage each month and my loan now is only 10pc of the property value so I think that’s responsible. I’ve also always been a saver.

Yes, although for the past year and a half interest rates have been so low it’s been a waste of time. Right now I’m deciding whether to invest in a second home – I have found a fabulous house in Somerset being sold by a one-man-band property developer, but it’s going to be a stretch. I want somewhere for the weekends and a place where I could live permanently whenever television spits me out. I can just about afford a £750,000 house with a £500,000 mortgage, but actually the one I’m looking at is roughly £150,000 more than that so I’m not sure whether I should try to find something cheaper.

How did you separate responsibility for finance in your first marriage and will it be very different the second time around?

As soon as I got married the first time, my wife decided to try to run her own PR business, but it didn’t work out. She later gave up work and I became responsible for all the bills. We didn’t have a joint account, we kept our bank accounts separate, but still I had to pay for everything. I’m not sure what I’m going to do this time around. I think at the moment we’re going to continue with separate bank accounts and I will carry on covering the bills at my home in London. If we do buy a second home, Amelia will pay something towards that and at that point we will probably get a joint bank account. I’m certainly not opposed to the idea.

How would you say your childhood experience influenced your attitude to money?

I was brought up in Croydon and my father worked as a store manager in Woolworths so we didn’t have much money, but we moved around a lot as my parents climbed the property ladder. We started in New Addington, which was grim, and finished 13 years later in South Croydon in a four-bedroom detached house with a garden and garage, but still there was never very much money. My father’s view was always to be generous with your friends and cautious in every other respect and I think I absorbed that from him.

Do you have a pension?

I’ve just started one. Because my savings weren’t growing earlier this year, I took some of the money I’d accumulated and started up a pension fund even though I know it’s a bit late in the day. Now, after the emergency Budget, I am not entirely sure it was the best move to make because of the potential changes to higher rate of tax relief and that could make a difference. But I’ve done it, so I think I will have to stick with it. At the same time I started looking for a second home so that eventually I can let my house in Primrose Hill for a rental income. Right now it would bring in about £60,000-£70,000 a year and that will do me just fine – I know plenty of people getting by on £25,000 a year.

What do you hate about dealing with money?

Not feeling confident about what I’m doing and not necessarily trusting professionals. It was a financial adviser from Lloyds who set me up with my first Pep about 10 years ago, but it lost money. I was told someone would be keeping an eye on it, but it soon became clear it wasn’t being managed properly. I have a different financial adviser now and I’m happy with him so far.

What’s been your best buy?

My house in Primrose Hill. I bought it seven years ago for £900,000 and I reckon it’s worth £1.4m today, which is not bad given the property market slump. But I spent two years looking for it because it’s not easy buying in Primrose Hill – it’s a very small place and there is high demand. Most of the houses were too expensive for me, but I was lucky to find a fairly small three-bedroom house I could afford.

And your worst buy?

After I helped Martine McCutcheon write her biography, I used some of the money I got from that to buy a new Lotus Elise for £30,000. Two years later I sold it for £12,000.

Do you have many credit cards?

I have one, but it’s got nothing on it. When I was first married we built up a £25,000 card debt and the first thing I did after we split was take some of the money from the sale of our house and pay off my card. I’ve never used them since and I think that’s one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made.

So how do you prefer to pay?

I use a BA Amex card, but I don’t consider that a credit card because it’s really a charge card and you have to pay off your balance in full each month.

How well do you tip?

I’m a generous tipper. It gives me a certain degree of pleasure if a taxi fare is £8 to round it up to a tenner. In my favourite restaurants they never used to add service to the bill automatically, but they started doing so about six years ago and the irony is that ever since I’ve been paying less. Whereas I might have given them 20pc, I now content myself to pay what’s added to the bill.

What’s been your greatest extravagance?

It used to be travelling business class, but now I often don’t pay for that because I get upgraded with my Airmiles.

Have you invested in shares?

Only within an Isa, which seemed to be doing fine until about two years ago. I don’t know whether I’m going to leave the money in it now because I might need to raid it for my second home.

Do you bank online?

I do. I have two online savings accounts that I check about once a month and I check my business bank account every day.

What’s been your favourite holiday?

My favourite place in the world is around the Brecon Beacons in Wales, as long as it’s on a sunny day. But if it is not sunny there then I’m a huge India fan (I’ve been about 10 times travelling around the country on a motorbike with my best mate) so I’d go there.